Fellows
by RadiantBeam
Summary: Who better to help a fallen prince, then a fallen hero? ::Fate Stay Night x Revolutionary Girl Utena:: ::Post-series, Heaven's Feel AU::
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: The properties of FSN and Revolutionary Girl Utena do not belong to me and will never belong to me, as much as I wished they did. Damn.

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><p><strong>Fellows<strong>

_Chapter 1_

_Her hand dangled limply in the empty space, reaching out into the darkness, reaching down, for the hand of a girl who had already fallen into the depths and was well beyond her reach. A part of her knew, of course; had known in that horrific, sudden instant when Anthy's hand had slipped from hers._

_She had failed._

_She would have cried, if she had the energy. She might have laughed, with the way things had gone. As it was, though, she had nothing left. No energy, no will, no desire to even try and move._

_So she just lie there, her hand dangling in empty darkness, feeling the blood drip from her fingers into the nothingness below._

_She heard the faint whistle of parting wind, and closed her eyes._

_She didn't even scream as a million swords drove home, sparing no part of her body._

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><p>It was a beautiful day in Fuyuki City, all things considered. The sun was shining enough to warm the air, but not hot enough for him to feel the sweat running down his back. The sky was clear and blue, and there was a fresh breeze blowing for the moments that he felt like he was starting to get a little overheated.<p>

All things considered, Archer mused, it was a beautiful day to be spending in the thick woods surrounding the city. He was glad he had decided against a jacket for this outing; it really wasn't necessary with how mild it was.

It had become one of his odd little habits, ever since the end of the Grail War and the start of his second life. He couldn't explain why, on his days off from work and when he had nothing better to do, he spent time exploring the woods. They had never held his interest when he had been younger, and he was relentlessly teased for it by pretty much everyone he knew.

Even so, he liked it. There was something oddly calming about coming out into a quiet, secluded area like this, and just wandering around until he felt tired enough to go back home. He didn't always think when he was out in the trees, but usually when he did, they were good thoughts.

A relief, really. Archer liked his life better when his mind didn't work against him, when his memories were at peace.

Even if his new hobby was enough for Lancer to make jabs at his pride ("Next thing you know, he'll be bringing home little injured birds and flowers!"), he didn't mind it too much. And for the times he did, there was still the old Emiya dojo.

He smirked a little at the thought, and kept walking.

He'd walk a little further, probably find a stream or something, and sit there for awhile. He had all day, after all; it was his time off, and he could do whatever he pleased. Liking the thought, he cut through a small thicket of trees, a quick shortcut and a way of escaping the afternoon sun.

Archer ducked his head slightly to avoid a branch, grimaced a little when a few loose leaves drifted down and tangled in his hair. He paused, brushing them off…

And in the dappled sunlight of the thicket, he spied a gleam of pink.

Archer paused.

Every muscle in his body, every instinct he had honed from his years of battle and wandering, told him to keep walking. It wasn't his business, not anymore; he had a new life, he didn't need to concern himself with someone else's problems. Now was the time he lived for himself, not for others.

He told himself that, but he was already pushing his way through the trees, already kneeling down beside the small, thin body, already turning her over gently—he could tell from the build, from the soft weight, that it was a girl, even before he saw the lips and the long hair and the breasts—already studying her bloodied, bruised hands.

Quite suddenly, he wished he'd brought his coat along, after all.

_Well, first things first, _he thought, resigned, and carefully gathered the girl into his arms, cradled her to his chest.

Her hands were her most obvious problem. He'd tend to them first, and worry about the rest when she actually woke up.

She was oddly light in his arms.

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><p>It was already dark, the moon climbing steadily in the inky black sky, by the time Lancer returned to the modestly-sized apartment he shared with his fellow former Servant. The blue-haired man was tired, but pleased with how his day had gone. He had worked hard, earned some money, and had even got to flirt with some pretty girls and fish a little.<p>

Indeed, at the rate things were going, nothing could ruin his night.

Humming, he hung up his jacket and went into the kitchen. His throat was dry, so he felt no guilt in reaching into the fridge and grabbing a bottle of Pepsi, even if he was pretty sure Archer had bought the last batch. He twisted the cap off and took a long drink, heading to the living room. His roommate was nowhere around, so maybe he could get the television to himself for a little while.

Flicking on the light, Lancer paused in the doorway. After a moment, he took another sip from his bottle, surveying the scene before him with calm red eyes.

Curled up on the couch, tucked under a thin blanket that looked as though it had seen better days, was a young girl; rather young, he mused, probably not even sixteen yet judging from her face. Tangled pink hair spilled along the arm of the couch, and a few strands draped across her face as she slept.

For a very long moment, Lancer simply stared, taking a few more sips from his bottle and savoring the sugary taste of his drink. When he had emptied his first bottle, he went back to the kitchen, tossed it into recycling, and got a second bottle, opening it without missing a beat.

This time, he spared the sleeping girl in the living room only a brief glance as he headed down the hall, to Archer's private work room. Finding the door already open, he opted to lean against the frame, watching as his roommate leaned over a plan for repairs that a customer of his garage had requested.

He was wearing glasses. Lancer always thought it was odd, that Archer wore glasses.

He waited, taking another long, deep swallow from his Pepsi. Finally, he spoke. "Archer."

Archer didn't even look up. "What?"

"If we're going to be roommates, I need you to not take me seriously when I joke about you bringing home things you find in the woods."

Archer finally looked up, adjusting his glasses with a small, amused smirk. "At least she isn't a bird?"

Lancer snorted and drained his bottle dry.

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><p>So I'm starting to think maybe I should put my ideas on some kind of birth control.<p>

Read and review, please!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: As per usual, absolutely nothing here belongs to me, no matter how much I wish it did.

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><p><em>Chapter 2<em>

Tenjou Utena didn't wake up screaming.

In some ways, it was sort of a disappointment; even after all she had seen and done, she was still fourteen years old, and the logic of movies she had seen in her past dictated that in this moment, she should have at _least _jolted awake in some kind of sweaty panic, fighting back a scream of terror or loss. Hell, to complete it, she probably should have woken still reaching desperately for Anthy's hand.

Instead, though, all she felt was…. calm, almost bordering on apathetic. She didn't even bother opening her eyes, simply lying there, listening to the sound of her breathing. She was somewhere unfamiliar, she was sure of that much, but it was as if her attempt to thwart Akio and save Anthy had completely drained her of any kind of emotional response.

Keeping her eyes closed, absently, she slipped her hand under her uniform, her fingers lightly playing with the slit where the sword had run clean through the fabric. She lowered her fingers further, brushing lightly against where her skin should have been—

And instead felt bandages, cool to the touch, against her fingertips.

It was the sensation of bandages wrapped around the wound on her stomach that finally made Utena open her eyes, blinking blearily. Her vision was faded, and small circles of color danced about before disappearing completely, and at last she could see clearly. She gazed at a ceiling she didn't recognize before finally drawing one hand out from under the thin blanket.

More bandages. The room was dim, but if she strained her eyes, she could see the faint smudge of blood, red against white.

Something clicked in her mind, then, and the mists cleared. Every doubt she'd had in her waking moments faded, and as she felt the hot twinge of a forming headache, she rubbed her eyes, grimacing against the sting she felt and the warm, wet lump in her throat. "Still alive, huh," she murmured.

"_I guess in the end, I couldn't become a prince…"_

Shaking her head to clear away the memory, Utena slowly, gingerly sat up, glancing around. It only confirmed what she already knew; she was somewhere that wasn't Ohtori, and Anthy wasn't there.

_Is she still in her coffin?_

The headache increased sharply and suddenly, and the pink-haired girl hissed in protest, rubbing her temples to try and ease the pain.

It wasn't a problem. If she was out of Ohtori and Anthy was still there, still in her coffin, then the solution was simple. She would simply have to return to the school, endure the duels again if she had to, stab Akio a thousand and one times until he died, and pull Anthy out of her coffin even if the Rose Bride kicked and screamed the whole way.

It was a plan; a weak one, a broad one, but a plan all the same, and now that she had it, Utena felt the headache beginning to fade, just a little bit. Pleased with it, relieved, she lowered her hands and glanced up again, wondering where the door was.

When her eyes met the gleaming red gaze of the tall, muscular man with blue hair, she felt only a small skitter of apprehension at the sight of him. He was larger, older, and she no longer had a sword, but she would be okay, she'd always been pretty good at fist fights anyway, and who cared if she got a few new scars—

Then she saw the second man at his shoulder, and even as she saw the superficial differences—not as slender, more muscle, his hair was too short and spiky, not to mention white, and his eyes were gray instead of green—her stomach revolted and her headache returned with blinding intensity as memories flooded her mind, of presents and horses, a million swords of hatred, _oh God, oh God, I'm not ready for this, I don't want this, why am I doing this…_

This time, Utena screamed.

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><p>Lancer lifted a brow, glancing at Archer. "What did you do?"<p>

"Nothing," the dark-skinned man muttered. "I've never even met her before."

The brow stayed lifted, and Lancer's gaze finally shifted back to the slim girl who had, just minutes earlier, been sleeping peacefully on the couch. She was now with her back pressed against the wall, sky blue eyes blazing, her muscles tense and clearly ready to fight.

And she was absolutely _glaring _at Archer.

"You clearly did _something_. A woman doesn't look at you like that unless you _really _did something to make her angry."

Archer growled, but otherwise didn't reply. Sighing and shaking his head, Lancer stepped forward and held both hands up in a peaceful gesture when those burning eyes turned on him, smiling lightly. "Easy, lass. Keep moving like that and you'll start bleeding again."

She blinked at that, some of the fire fading in her gaze; the pain of her wound finally seemed to cut through her jumbled mind and she winced, pressing a hand to her stomach to try and soothe it. The wariness, the uncertainty was still in her eyes, but the initial panic and fear was starting to fade. Slowly, subtly, she relaxed; not completely, but at least she no longer seemed ready to go for Archer's throat.

Pleased with the progress, Lancer lowered his hands. Archer glanced at the man, before letting his eyes slide back to the calming girl. As badly as he wanted to check her bandages to see if she had started to bleed again—it had been some time since he had applied them, anyway, so they were probably in need of changing—he had the feeling that moving too fast would cause her to shut him out.

He'd seen the look in her eyes; the panic, the fear, the sheer _terror _the moment she had glimpsed him and mistaken him for someone else. He'd seen that look far too many times, in far too many eyes.

_And she's only a kid_, he thought, shaking his head. He cleared his throat, and once again found sharp, focused, sky blue eyes on his face. He didn't try to smile, instead keeping his face blank. In his experience, whenever he made this offer, no one could refuse.

"Would you like some tea?"

She blinked, staring at him dumbly. After a moment, she smiled, a little shakily, and pushed loose strands of hair out of her eyes.

"As long as there aren't any rose petals in it."

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><p>Archer's tea did not, in fact, contain any rose petals. His tea was amber, and warm, and steam rose from it enticingly; when she sipped, it soothed her throat and made her headache finally fade completely, warming her from the inside out and pouring a small measure of life back into her battered body. She cradled the tea cup in her hands now, gingerly, as Archer finished applying fresh bandages to her stomach wound.<p>

It was going to scar, which didn't surprise or bother her nearly as much as it probably should have. The angry red bruises on her hands would also leave small scars. To be honest, Utena was simply impressed that she wasn't one large, massive scar with legs, after being run through by a million swords of hatred.

Unless that part hadn't happened, but she still remembered the pain far too well to dismiss it.

"You're lucky." She was brought back to reality by Archer's voice, blinking as he pulled away. "It's still bleeding, but it looks like the worst of it has stopped. You'll want to be careful for awhile, though. You nearly opened it again with your last stunt."

Utena winced, setting her cup down. "Sorry," she said.

Across the table, nursing his third bottle of Pepsi, Lancer snorted and grinned; Utena could have sworn he had fangs instead of normal teeth. "Don't mind him, he's just sulking because you ruined the first job he did on it."

Wordlessly, Archer reached onto the table, grabbed a stray chopstick, and hurled it at Lancer's face; the blue-haired man ducked, his grin now a smirk. "Ignore him, he thinks he's intelligent."

The laugh didn't come, but Utena's lips twitched upwards, just slightly; she took another sip from her cup, eyeing her two companions.

Archer. Lancer. Odd names, and neither of them looked Japanese; Utena had never seen a man with red eyes even at Ohtori, and even if she had, those eyes didn't even match the bloody, gleaming depths of Lancer's gaze. And Archer was…

Not Akio, she knew that much. He was taller, just a little bit, and with far more muscle than she had ever seen on Anthy's older brother. His eyes were the biggest difference; gray, like steel, and even when they were reserved and calm, there was a small hint of warmth she had never seen in Akio.

Odd men, all the same; they reminded her of some ways in Anthy, someone who looked and acted human but always seemed just a little off, in some small way. And yet, so far, they seemed pretty okay.

"That reminds me," Archer commented, finally taking his seat at the table. "You never did tell us your name."

She paused, caught mid-sip, and swallowed. She gazed at them both for a moment over the rim of her cup before she made up her mind.

There was no real harm in letting them know; in the real world, she was no one important.

"Utena. Tenjou Utena."

"A lovely name for a lovely young girl." Archer rammed his elbow into Lancer's ribs hard enough to make the man wheeze, even as he retaliated with a hard kick to the shin.

"Next question, then." Steel gray eyes met sky blue. "Do you know why you were unconscious in Fuyuki woods?"

She could guess. If Akio was half the chess master he'd made himself out to be the last time she'd seen him, he'd probably had a hand in her disappearance from Ohtori. And even if he didn't, she'd played the role they'd needed her to fulfill; there would have been no point in keeping her around.

She wondered, briefly, if Anthy even remembered her.

"I made Lucifer angry."

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><p>"She's got a story."<p>

His back to Lancer, washing out the cups they had used during their small tea talk with Utena, Archer shrugged. "We all have a story. She's no different."

Lancer grumbled. "Don't give me that crap, bowman. You saw her eyes. A kid her age shouldn't have that kind of story."

So he'd seen it, too, then; Archer wasn't surprised. For his straightforward attitude and general bluntness, Lancer was incredibly sharp when it suited him.

In the end, they hadn't asked; it was late at night, and even with her injuries tended to, Utena was bruised and tired. A quick hunt around the apartment had yielded one of Archer's old torn shirts, which they'd deemed good enough to at least last her a night.

She hadn't even showered; simply accepted the small spare room they offered, collapsed onto the futon, and passed out. She looked as though she could sleep for days.

Turning off the water, Archer set the cups out to dry. "Maybe not, but she does," he said at last.

Lancer grunted and sighed, running a hand through his hair. Finally, he snorted in amusement and shook his head.

"Do wish she was a bit older, though. When I imagined having a girl in this apartment, I never thought she'd be a kid."

Archer shook his head. "Give her a few more years, maybe she'll go after you."

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><p>Most people assumed Utena wasn't a very patient person, and they would have every reason to think this was the truth. She was loud, rushed into situations often without thinking them through, and often preferred to do things herself instead of waiting for someone else to help her.<p>

She could be patient, though, when she wanted to be; hell, her desire to save Anthy had pretty much been one long test of patience, since she had been all too aware of the fact that all she needed to do was throw a duel to get out of the whole mess.

In comparison, waiting for the apartment to go completely dark and for both men to go to sleep was almost laughably easy. Moving quietly, she tugged off the shirt she had been given, pausing long enough to fold it neatly and leave it on the futon, once more donning her uniform. It was on its last legs, but it would last her until she got back to Ohtori.

Through the window, the moonlight gleamed faintly on the Rose Seal she still wore on her left hand. Seeing it, Utena paused, gazing at it quietly as she debated what to do it.

Her first instinct was to remove it; perhaps not get rid of it completely, but she didn't feel comfortable wearing it on her finger anymore. She twisted it absently, mulling the thought over, and finally decided to just leave it be. If she was going to end up back in Akio's game, dueling for the Rose Bride, then she still needed to wear her ring regardless of how she felt about it.

She gave the small room one last look, making sure she was leaving it clean, before she quietly slid the door open and stepped out into the hallway, pausing to listen. It was completely dark, and her eyes had adjusted enough for her to tell she was alone; she couldn't hear anything that indicated the men were up.

Moving lightly on her feet, she passed by the living room and reached the door. Taking a deep breath and sending a mental apology to Lancer and Archer, she gripped the knob and twisted.

"Heading out?"

To her credit, Utena didn't scream this time; she _did _nearly jump out of her skin, whirling around with wide eyes. Not even bothering to turn on the light, Archer stood absently leaning against the couch, watching Utena calmly.

Breathing deeply, trying to calm her pounding heart, Utena squared her shoulders, meeting his gaze. "I have to go. My friend is still in trouble."

Archer lifted a brow, considering this response. Finally, he sighed and straightened up. "I understand," he said at last. "I really do. But it's late at night, and do you even know where you are?"

She blinked at that. She hesitated, thought this over, and replied a little hesitantly. "You said this place was called Fuyuki."

"And do you know how to get from Fuyuki to where your friend is?"

A long pause; finally, Utena released the knob and sighed in defeat, shoulders slumped, shaking her head.

He softened a little bit, then; not very much, not very noticeably, but a little bit. "It's late," he repeated gently. "None of the bus systems are running, and you haven't slept that much. You still need to rest, and your wounds still need time to recover. At least stay for tonight."

"But Himemiya—"

"Will forgive you for being a little late in going to help. If you feel like you can go back, then I doubt your friend is in any real danger. You would have tried to leave much sooner than now if that wasn't the case."

She had no argument for that; even the small amount of movement had made her stomach throb lightly in protest, and exhaustion still lingered in her body even after sleeping for several hours.

And as much as she hated to admit it, Anthy was probably still safe for the time being. Akio needed her intact for his plans, and after the damage Utena had done, it would probably take some time for him to set things back to how they had been. She was smart enough to recognize that much.

She let go of the knob. "Just for tonight," she said at last.

Archer chuckled, smiling slightly. "Of course."

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><p>One of the main genres for this story, currently, is Humor. That's mostly because of Lancer, I admit right away. However, the story itself will be a little bit dark, so don't be surprised if that genre changes at some point as I continue. I'll withhold judgement on what genre to change Humor to after I see where the story goes; currently looking at about three mini-arcs, so we shall see.<p>

Any and all feedback on Utena's current characterization is welcome! My first thought with this chapter was how she would react to things after most of the trauma she's handled in the series, but anything else beyond that I'm currently still trying to figure out.

Also, a timeline: much like HF True, this story takes place two years after the Grail War and is an AU of HF, something I will delve into as I go along. For RGU, this takes place almost immediately after the dueling arena crumbles, so currently Anthy is still spending her months in Ohtori, probably just waking up and going "WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK, UTENA-SAMA?" for much of this chapter. I know it's OOC, but the image amuses me. I figure it matches up, since RGU was never one of those anime that really dated itself anyway within the show from what I remember, so it's possible for it to match the year of FSN.

Read and review, please!


	3. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer: _I own nothing.

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><p><em>Chapter 3<em>

Lancer leaned absently against the doorway to the very empty room, surveying the sight of the rolled up futon, the neatly folded and torn boy's uniform, and the gleaming rose-crested ring on the small desk. Turning on his heel, he headed towards the kitchen, where he knew Archer would be making breakfast.

Archer making breakfast in a pink apron that wasn't at all suited for him, but that wasn't the biggest problem here.

"The kid's gone," he said, not even bothering with anything else as he sat at the table.

Archer blinked, his concentration on his food broken, and looked up. His gray eyes were cloudy and distant for a moment before he blinked again, and their usual sharpness returned. "Kid?"

Lancer gestured to the hallway. "Your latest project. The girl you brought home."

Archer blinked a third time, before the gears in his head finally clicked together; it seemed Archer wasn't much of a morning person, or wasn't capable of thinking clearly when he was interrupted from cooking. Either or.

"Utena?" He shook his head, turning back to the meal he was preparing. "She's still here. She's taking a shower."

Lancer blinked, then frowned, tilting his head to the side and closing his eyes, listening.

_Huh. Yep, that's running water._

Shrugging it off, the blue-haired man turned back to his living companion and grinned, blood red eyes gleaming with malicious teasing. "So what's for breakfast, honey?"

"Fuck you."

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><p>Whoever had invented showers, Utena decided, was a god among men. It was as if the hot water soaked through her skin and was absorbed into her muscles, soothing every ache she'd suffered and healing every wound ever inflicted upon her.<p>

Almost every wound, anyway.

Opening her eyes against the spray, the pink-haired girl looked down, ignoring the small, healing scars on her hands. No, her eyes were drawn immediately to the dark, neat, almost circular wound on her stomach, the place where Anthy had driven the sword home.

She traced her fingers over it, lightly. Too much disturbance would make it bleed again, or at least that was what Archer had said when he gave her permission to shower when she asked.

It was odd, really. She hadn't had a good look at it until now; hadn't even been aware of losing blood until she had woken in the apartment and seen the red stains on the bandages. It seemed almost impossible that it could be so small; how could something so small be capable of the pain she'd felt that had robbed her of the ability to breathe and walk?

_Unless it wasn't the physical pain that crippled me…_

Shaking her head grimly to dismiss the thought, Utena began to wash her hair with just a touch of unneeded savagery, distracted by how strangely light her left hand felt without its ring.

The shower ended almost too quickly for her liking, but Utena shook the feeling off and gingerly stepped out of the stall, moving slowly so as to not disturb her stomach. Drying off with the towel that Archer had given her was a quick job, and it only took her several minutes to work out how to reapply the bandages; not as well as Archer had, but the older man had accepted her request that she do it herself.

It was, perhaps, a tad immature of her. But it felt a little empowering, to be able to treat her wound herself. Utena would take as much of the feeling as she could get right now.

Done with the last of the bandages, she now set about to dressing. A pair of jeans and a yellow, striped sweater was the best the men had to offer, apparently a set of clothes left over from a female friend of Lancer's that had raided their fridge once, left the clothes behind, and never came back to get them.

Oddly enough, it seemed that Archer still didn't know the name of the woman Lancer brought home that night.

Brushing the thought from her mind, Utena trotted back down the hall towards her temporary room, wanting to make sure one last time that it was clean before she eased the hunger rumbling in her belly. The gleam of her ring caught her eye, and out of practiced habit she picked it up, preparing to slide it back into place.

"_If you never lose your nobility, even when you grow up, then you may be able to save her from her eternal torment. … If so, that ring will lead you back here, one day."_

Utena froze, shoulders stiff, as if someone had spilled a bucket of ice down her back. She stared numbly at the ring, suddenly feeling ill.

After a moment, she shuddered and put it back down, hastily heading out of the room.

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><p>The soft, hesitant sound of footsteps from the hall made Archer glance up as he folded his apron and set it aside. Swallowing a mouthful of eggs, Lancer looked up as well, and waved, fork still in hand. "Hey, sleeping beauty!"<p>

Utena blinked, then smiled shakily and lifted her hand in return.

It wasn't much, Archer mused, but it was a start. When she looked at him, he smiled slightly. "Hungry? I just finished setting up the table."

"He's such a perfect wife," Lancer said with a grin, and barely dodged to the side to avoid the fist that was descending on his head, almost falling out of his chair in the process.

Utena giggled.

The sound made both men look at her—Archer with amused surprise, Lancer with his grin still in place—and the sound seemed to shock her as she paused, blinking, absently bringing her fingers to her lips. It was almost as if it stunned her, to realize she could still laugh so innocently and childishly.

"See?" Smirking in triumph, Lancer climbed back into his chair. "She thinks I'm funny."

"Someone had to," Archer muttered, pulling back a chair and sitting down.

Taking that as a cue, Utena's strides lost their hesitance in the face of her hunger and the delicious food that was presented in front of her, sitting across from the two men, murmuring quick thanks before she began to eat.

Turned out Utena wasn't just hungry, she was starving.

Lancer and Archer exchanged amused looks and returned to their own meals, not about to call the girl out on it. She had only had tea last night, so it made sense that now her hunger would be catching up with her. And really, to be honest, Archer enjoyed seeing someone else enjoying his cooking so much. It helped as well to see that she was relaxing now, even more than she had last night.

She wasn't, however, wearing her ring.

_Interesting, _Archer mused, and decided to push the point—gently, of course, but push it all the same. "Not rushing out the door to save your friend this time?" he asked mildly, ignoring the sharp, narrow look he got from Lancer in response to his probing question.

Utena winced then, just a little bit; sensing this was something she needed to address, she hesitantly lowered her fork, trying to find the words to justify her current actions. "I want to still save Himemiya," she said, and Archer saw the small flare of fire in her eyes, of steel and determination. All too quickly, though, it was gone, and her shoulders slumped a little. "I just…. I don't know if I can do it. Again." She looked at Archer, and in that moment, she looked vulnerable and young, much younger than her fourteen years.

"How can I say I'll save her a second time when I couldn't even save her the first time?"

Lancer glanced between the two of them and, for the moment, elected to remain silent as he continued to eat; but he was listening. He was always listening.

But there was no more speaking; whatever had pushed Utena this far seemed to have drained out of her for the time being, and she went back to what was left of her meal. Archer, for the moment, was content to let it be. She'd told him far more than she'd intended, he knew that much, and urging her any harder at this point would only cause her to retreat into herself and close him out.

It surprised him, in some small way, that he actually wanted to keep her from closing him out.

The moment passed for a long time in silence before finally Lancer cleared his throat, glancing at Archer. "What are you planning to do today, bowman?"

"Me?" Archer lifted a brow, sipping from his water. "I _was _planning to open my shop today, but I think I'll check on old man Raiga. He owes me some favors for the errands I've run."

At that, Lancer snorted, his eyes gleaming with amusement. "Good luck getting anything out of him, then." He turned his sharp red gaze to Utena, now. "And you, lass?"

Utena blinked, like a rabbit caught in the eyes of a hound and once again caught mid-swallow. Gulping hastily and somehow avoiding her gag reflex, she spoke up quickly. "I, uh, don't know. I was…" She trailed off as she realized she had absolutely no idea what she'd planned to do today.

Satisfied, Lancer nodded. "If you don't have anything you need to do, you should come into work with me."

Up went Archer's brow again. "Your place is hiring?"

"Hell no. I mean she can hang around the market while I work." Lancer glanced back at Utena. "It's an open place, so you'll be able to explore and at least get a feel for part of the city. Figured you needed a chance to breathe some fresh air and stretch your legs again."

The pink-haired girl was silent for a moment as she mulled the thought over, absently finishing what was left of her breakfast. "I guess it wouldn't hurt," she decided at last. "It seems better than just staying in the apartment, at least."

Triumphant, Lancer grinned. "It's settled, then." He chuckled when Utena gave him a look. "Don't worry, sleeping beauty, I won't keep you on a leash. Just try not to get lost."

"Yes, sir," Utena shot back in amusement, sipping from her water. Definitely relaxed, now, Archer mused; the topic had shifted away from her, and in spite of her nature, she seemed to enjoy having decision taken out of her hands for the time being.

He didn't worry when Utena grimaced and pressed her fingers to her temples, trying to soothe a headache that for some reason stung like the steel blades of swords, pressing mercilessly against her brain. He didn't understand the meaning of it then, the warning, and the pain faded quickly.

On her way out of the apartment, following in Lancer's footsteps and calling a farewell to Archer, she didn't even bother going back to her room to grab her ring.

* * *

><p><em>Do you know? Do you know? Have you heard the news?<em>

_The prince has fallen!_

_Oh, my._

_Well, he isn't dead, obviously. She. She isn't dead. She's not a normal prince, you know, but even an unusual prince won't die at the end of the story. Fairy tales don't usually work that way._

_But she has fallen?_

_She has! The brave hero falls, bloodied and bruised. She broke into tiny little pieces!_

… _How is she still alive, then?_

_But worry not, young fallen prince! A brave knight comes to pick you back up and put you together again! Except, well, he seems just as broken as you are. And yet still, he comes to your aid. What a loyal, heroic knight!_

_Maybe if we use superglue, we can put them back together!_

_I don't think it works that way…_

_But, noble knight! Do you think you should really be trying to fix someone else, when you yourself are still so broken?_

_I found some superglue!_

… _I keep telling you, I don't think it works that way._

* * *

><p>Much to Lancer's relief, the weather for the day was beautiful; just a tad chilly, but not so bad that it justified a heavy jacket. The sun was shining and the sky was clear and blue, and in spite of her wound Utena was keeping pace with him easily enough, staying close to his side while practically drinking in every sight she saw as they walked, as if trying to imprint everything she saw into her memory.<p>

It amused him, and he smiled a little. "Never been to a city before?"

She shook her head, looking up at him and brushing loose strands of pink hair out of her eyes. "Not one this big, no. I grew up out in the country, and we only had a small town a few miles away from Ohtori."

Lancer decided against telling her that as far as cities went, Fuyuki was actually still pretty small; it would seem like he was teasing her. He took the change in topic as an excuse to expand the opening she had given him. "Ohtori? Was that your school or something?"

Utena paused mid step, nearly tripped over her own feet, and hastily resumed her previous pace, trotting now to keep up with Lancer to make up for the ground she'd lost. He waited patiently, knowing she would either shut him out or appease his curiosity.

"… Yeah," she said at last, and she looked away from him now, absently playing with her hair. "I was going to Ohtori before I ended up here."

Lancer didn't say anything for awhile, after that. Utena didn't look at him. Finally, with a sigh, he lifted his hand and gently ruffled her hair. "Don't push yourself if you don't want to," he murmured. "You're just having fun today."

He went on ahead. Utena slowed down and stopped for a moment, studying him with unsure, surprised sky blue eyes.

After a second or two of thought, she shook her head and jogged to his side, easily keeping pace with his long strides.

* * *

><p>Fujimura Raiga was a man who prided himself on how little he had changed; over the years his personality had remained intact, he had held on to his power, and he was still in many ways the person he had been from his younger years. He even lived in the same house, on the same street, and refused to move.<p>

And if there was one thing in particular that never, ever changed about the old man, it was his ability to dig up information from places Archer had only ever dreamed of. He often chose, wisely, not to question how he got his hands on that information.

"You owe me a favor, old man."

Old eyes looked up as Archer sat down in front of him. Raiga exhaled heavily, blowing out a stream of smoke from his pipe, and grinned. "Several, in fact," he rasped. "But you rarely ever collect on any of them."

"I'm collecting on one now." Archer glanced absently about the room, his eyes missing nothing. "I need you to look someone up for me."

"Old girlfriend?"

"Tenjou Utena."

Raiga blinked, lowering his pipe. "You have a name?"

"I found her in the woods yesterday bleeding and unconscious. The most I know is she has a friend back where she came from, and that friend might be in trouble."

Raiga blinked again; a slow, small smirk curved his lips. "You want me to look into her past."

Archer returned the smirk. "You _do _owe me some favors."

"Indeed I do." He inhaled deeply from his pipe, thinking it over, then nodded to himself. "Tenjou Utena. I'll look into it."

"How long do you need? I can give you a couple of days."

Raiga's smirk widened.

"A couple of days? Archer, my boy, go make yourself busy for awhile. I'll have news on your little girlfriend within a few hours."

"…." Archer winced. "She's just a kid, Raiga."

He grinned now. "You like 'em young?"

Archer groaned.

* * *

><p>The market was, in fact, completely open; something that impressed and dazzled Utena. While Lancer went to work in his small store she explored, taking in the new sights and smells, observing the people, and generally getting to actually act her age for once, even if the mild throbbing of her stomach from time to time reminded her that she bore a wound most unusual for a fourteen year old girl.<p>

She'd almost forgotten what normal, clean air tasted like; she'd grown far too used to it carrying that taint of roses from her time in Ohtori.

She ended up going full circle in the end, returning to the store Lancer worked at and sitting on the curb, leaning back on her hands and watching the sidewalks and street. She didn't mind it, though. It had been quite awhile since she had simply sat back and watched the day go by.

Footsteps behind her made her look up. "Lancer?"

She almost added the '-san' just to be polite, but she'd already gotten one lecture from him when she'd done so while they were walking. Apparently, the man wasn't a fan of Japanese honorifics.

"Yo." He dropped down beside her on the sidewalk. "Enjoying the view?"

Utena shrugged, turning her eyes back to the crowd. "I haven't done this in awhile. It's nice."

"Never did understand the appeal of it, myself." He glanced at her. "You thirsty? It's starting to warm up."

Indeed, it was. The chill of the morning had faded away into a relatively warm afternoon, and while Utena wasn't feeling particularly hot at the moment even with her sweater on, her throat was still dry from all of the walking she had done. Even so… "I don't have any money," she said.

Digging into his pocket, Lancer felt around and retrieved a few coins, grabbing her hand and dropping them into her palm. When she stared at him, he grinned and got to his feet. "Buy me something cold and I'll consider it payback, all right?" And before she could respond, he headed back into the store, heeding the bellow of his boss.

Utena stared after him for several seconds, unsure of what had just happened. Sighing, she pocketed the change and got to her feet, stretching a bit before she set off on her hunt for a vending machine.

Lancer reminded her of Wakaba, in some ways. She still hadn't figured out yet if that was good or not.

* * *

><p>Raiga had told him to kill a few hours, and so Archer set about to doing just that; he had some orders to fill, and the apartment was in need of a good cleaning now that a third person had currently taken residence within it, even if only temporarily.<p>

That had ended far too quickly, though, and it was only delaying the inevitable. He'd missed his usual day of visiting her because he'd thrown himself into his work, and if Rin had to nag him about it one more time he knew for a fact that she'd come down and clobber him over the head.

So, bracing himself, Archer left the apartment and headed for the cemetery.

It was always too quiet for him there; the walk to it was empty and deserted, and even when he was inside of it, with the wind blowing gently and leaves drifting in the wind, he couldn't quite shake the feeling that the dead were watching him from the safety of their graves.

Grimacing, he shoved his hands deeper into his pockets and kept walking.

The first time he had come after the Grail War, he had bought flowers; obnoxiously pink, stupidly bright things that seemed like an empty, hollow offering. He stopped bringing flowers after that.

He hoped she didn't mind.

Finally, though, he was there. Kneeling down, Archer saw with some amusement that a few small red gems had been left at the gravesite; Rin must have visited recently. Absently, he reached out and brushed the letters carved into the stone.

"Hey, Sakura," he murmured. "Sorry I'm late."

* * *

><p>"Ah, damn."<p>

Shaking her head in annoyance, Utena reached down and grabbed the bottle of Pepsi she had dropped. How odd; she distinctly remembered grabbing it when it clattered out of the machine, but her fingers had fumbled it when she felt a brief, stabbing pain throughout her arm. It had faded quickly, though, so she paid it no mind.

Tucking the bottle under one arm—she'd seen the bottles in the recycling bin back at the apartment, and figured Lancer was the soda drinker of the two—she twisted the cap of her own lemon tea and took a sip. It wasn't as good as the tea back in Ohtori or what Archer had made, but it would quench her thirst.

She darted back out onto the main street, moving light on her feet, and saw too late the person coming her way. She skidded and yelped as they collided, stumbling back and managing to brace herself from falling.

The person she ran into, on the other hand, fell like a sack of bricks.

"Ah, I'm so sorry!" Hastily she knelt down, offering her hand. "I'm really sorry, I wasn't looking where I was going. Are you all right?"

The man she had knocked over looked up at her with dazed, empty blue eyes. His hair matched his eye color, and might have been wavy at some point, but a long time of absent care made it now look ragged and limp. He simply stared at her, not processing her hand.

"Uh…. Sir?" She tried again. "Are you okay?" Hesitantly, she touched his shoulder.

It seemed to break the spell he was under; fire coming into his eyes, snarling viciously, he knocked her hand away and stumbled to his feet, glaring daggers at her. "Don't _touch _me," he snarled. "_No one _touches me!"

Utena pulled back and frowned, opening her mouth to speak; she never had a chance as, with one last hateful glare, the man shoved past her and kept walking, shoulders hunched and head bowed, muttering to himself.

"… Well, okay then."

Dismissing it, Utena readjusted her grip on Lancer's drink and headed back the way she had come, retracing her steps from where she had left the shop. Thankfully, the vending machine hadn't been too far away, so there was no chance she could get lost.

Mostly.

Looking up, though, she spotted him easily enough; Lancer was hard to miss, with his blue hair and his red eyes.

Equally hard to miss were the two women talking to him; one a smaller, blonde-haired girl with focused green eyes, and the other tall and slender, a pair of glasses perched on her nose and lilac hair pulled back by a black ribbon. They seemed to know Lancer well, judging from the air about them and the way they spoke, like old friends teasing each other.

Not bothered by their presence—Utena had seen plenty of unusual looking people during her time in Ohtori, after all—the pink-haired girl picked up her pace, lifting the hand that held her lemon tea to get his attention. "I got you soda, Lancer," she said. "I hope you don't mind."

He nodded and accepted the drink from her with a word of thanks, drinking from the bottle deeply. The two women stared at her for a moment, studying her intensely, before the lilac-haired one sighed and turned to Lancer.

"Lancer, isn't your new girlfriend kind of young?"

Lancer choked on his drink.

* * *

><p>The day after the duel called Revolution, Himemiya Anthy woke up in bed and made a grand effort to ignore the missing sight of Utena sleeping across from her, setting about to making breakfast and dressing for school the way she had done many, many times before after countless other champions had fallen. She pinned back her hair, slid on her glasses, and left the room her brother had given her.<p>

Chu-Chu didn't come with her, as he usually did. He had seen fit all morning to curl up on Utena's pillow, mewling heartbrokenly, and refused to move even when Anthy asked or comforted him. In the end, she left him alone; Chu-Chu had been fond of Utena, more fond of her than he had ever been of any champion, and he was allowed to grieve her loss.

She went to the greenhouse first, checking the state of her beloved roses; it had been several days since she had last tended to them, as she had prepared for the final duel that would decide everything. Seeing they would hold up awhile longer yet, she hurried off to class, not wanting to be late.

She hadn't worried about such things until Utena had been by her side, practically dragging her to class every morning and gently nagging her when her grades were lacking.

Anthy sat in her usual seat, near the back of the class, and tried to ignore Utena's empty seat; tried to ignore how no one else seemed to notice her absence, how another girl with curly black hair and brown eyes, one she had never seen before, flew through the door and tackled Wakaba, claiming to be her best friend.

_No, you are not her best friend. Utena-sama was her best friend, where did you come from?_

She got through classes mostly by zoning out, doodling little images of animals in the corners of her notes, and pretended not to hear Utena's voice echoing in her ears, scolding her for not paying attention. She was the first person to leave the classroom when the day ended.

Anthy returned to the greenhouse once classes were over and picked up her old watering can, paying special attention to the white roses for reasons she refused to think about.

It wasn't until it was dark and she set the can down, satisfied with her work, that Anthy finally realized: during the whole day, she hadn't heard the swords mutter a single hateful whisper.

* * *

><p>Foreshadowing. Foreshadowing everywhere.<p>

Also, huzzah! So far I have kept to a monthly update schedule! ... Mostly. But I bet none of you expected me to update this soon.

Read and review, please!


	4. Chapter 4

Author's Note/Disclaimer: The creative works and characters of Fate/Stay Night and Revolutionary Girl Utena do not belong to me. I am merely using them for my own twisted enjoyment, and apologize for the huge delay in this chapter. Real life stuff happened. It's... um... long, at least?

* * *

><p><em>Chapter 4<em>

_Once upon a time, years and years ago, there was a little boy. And he was very sad, for a great fire had killed his family and burned away everything._

_Before the boy appeared a hero, who shielded him from the rain that put out the fire. He had a kind, relieved, almost overjoyed smile, and it was that smile that returned to the boy his will to live, and saved his life._

_The hero wrapped the boy in an embrace that smelled of smoke, lifting him up tenderly and carrying him to safety, cradling him the entire time like he was a precious stone. Later on, when the rain had stopped falling, the hero came for the boy, and adopted him as his son, giving him a home and a name._

"_If I can," he said, "I'd prefer nobody to be sad. If I can make people around me happy just by helping them myself, I think that would make the world a pleasant place to live in."_

_Perhaps the hero, being an adult, had regrets that the boy could never understand. So when he said something like that, it meant something to him that it had never meant to the boy._

_This was all well and good, but so impressed was he by these words, that the boy vowed to become a hero himself one day._

_But was that really such a good idea?_

* * *

><p>"I was wondering when you'd visit again."<p>

Anyone else might have jolted by how suddenly Tohsaka Rin spoke, if they'd been caught up in the silence and emptiness of the cemetery. Archer was not like anyone else, and had heard the young woman entering long before she had come to his side.

He blew out a breath as she knelt down, gently brushing off the tombstone. "I had some free time," he said. He gestured to the small red gems. "When did you leave those?"

The younger woman shrugged, straightening up and stretching out. "I got back from school early today, and felt like going for a walk through the city before going home. I wanted to see what's changed. What's stayed the same."

Rin very carefully avoided specifying if her visit to Sakura's grave had been something she had planned the moment she'd left London, or something she'd thought to do the moment she was back in Fuyuki.

She wasn't looking at him, either, but then again Archer didn't mind it. This was always hard for both of them, in front of Sakura's grave. Remembering that she had died, along with Ilya, so that he and the others could live, could have flesh and blood bodies. Often times it was easy enough to work around or not think about, but in moments like this it was unavoidable.

Archer often wondered how Rin and Rider managed it, but it had been almost two years now and they seemed to be just fine. Perhaps it was different when you were in love. He honestly couldn't say.

"Besides," he continued lightly, steel gray eyes gleaming, "the last time you were here, you threatened to beat me and then drag me here to pay my respects yourself."

He glanced down, and saw her lips twitch slightly; not quite a smile, she rarely ever smiled here, but something close to it.

"How long are you planning to stay in Fuyuki?" It was a light question, and an easy one that didn't require much thought to answer.

"Ah…" Rin blinked. "I'm here for my vacation, since school let out."

So only a few weeks to a month at best, then, if he remembered anything at all about school breaks; granted, he was well aware that schools in London could also run on different schedules, but more or less his former Master would be back in her home city for some time before she was called back to continue her schooling.

Which meant that if Utena was going to stay long term—or even just a few days, really, but there was always the possibility that she could choose not to return to wherever she'd come from—Rin would find out about her sooner or later, either from Archer telling her himself or from Lancer messing up and revealing it without thinking.

Since Lancer was often prone to revealing things without thinking, the safest and easiest route was to be honest, and tell Rin about the young girl who had somehow dropped out of the sky and taken up the spare room in their small apartment. He knew that.

But a large part of Archer wanted to remain silent on the topic of his young charge. As long as he didn't know for sure if Utena intended to stay for good, then he reasoned it was perfectly natural to keep quiet about her. And besides, quite frankly, he didn't want Rin to worry about him. She worried about him enough as it was.

Archer was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't realize Rin was looking at him until she gently tugged at his sleeve, trying to get his attention. "What?"

"Did you bring something for Ilya, too?"

The silence that followed her question was deafening. Archer looked down into her eyes for a moment, then looked away, focusing on Sakura's tombstone as if it held the answers. He couldn't bring himself to speak.

But his silence said it all.

Rin sighed softly. "It wouldn't be strange to, you know? Shirou brings her flowers once in awhile with Saber."

"This isn't her grave," Archer said.

"Archer…"

Rin wanted to say more. He could sense that much from her, but she was at a loss for words. It was true—this _wasn't _Ilya's grave. Ilya hadn't been like Sakura. There hadn't been a body to recover, a body to bury. If Sakura had been left cold and dead in the aftermath of her desire to save Shirou, then Ilya had vanished completely.

Oh, she was dead. Of that there was no doubt.

But how did you have a grave for a girl who had simply disappeared?

A soft, warm hand brushed his fingers; Rin didn't quite hold on, but it reminded him she was still there. "Don't blame yourself," she murmured. "They made that choice. Both of them."

A comfort to her, maybe. Not so much him.

Archer didn't respond, just gently shifted away from her. His dues paid, he headed for the gates of the cemetery. He'd done what he was supposed to do. He wanted to leave before the silence and feeling of the place suffocated him.

"Archer!"

Rin's call made him pause, though he didn't look back.

"… Just, promise me, okay? Don't do anything stupid," she said. "Ilya gave you a new life. Enjoy it."

Archer paused for a moment before he turned, an amused little smirk curving his lips. "Why, Rin, are you actually _worried _about me?"

The black-haired girl scowled, crossing her arms over her chest as her teal eyes blazed. "So what if I am? I'm your former Master, after all, it's my job to make sure you're taking care of yourself."

Archer stared at her for a moment.

Then, shocking them both, he laughed.

"W-What?!" Rin yelped. "It's a perfectly logical reason! I was responsible for you once, you know! I'd feel guilty if you weren't enjoying your life!"

"I know, I know." He chuckled, then gave her a small, slight smile. "Okay. I promise not to do anything stupid."

Her eyes were suspicious. "You mean it?"

He lifted his hand, before turning away and leaving the cemetery. "Yes, yes. I mean it."

Archer didn't look back, so he didn't know for sure if Rin actually believed him. A part of him thought she didn't.

Honestly, he couldn't blame her.

* * *

><p>"So she's <em>not <em>your girlfriend?"

The blank look Lancer gave Rider seemed to be answer enough for the woman, as she smiled faintly as she adjusted her glasses. "Well," she said. "It's good to see you have _some _standards."

Lancer snorted. "I don't want to hear that from the woman sleeping with a school girl."

Rider frowned. "She's in university now."

"My point still stands."

Utena wondered what it said about her that she could tune out the current debate between the two to study the newcomers without much trouble. She also wondered what it said about her when, faced with a short green-eyed blonde woman and a tall woman with eyes that matched her lilac hair, she could say she'd seen much stranger looking people at Ohtori.

No one quite as tall as this Rider woman, but the point still stood. The name was still strange, though.

For the time being though, she seemed more interested in her argument with Lancer than in Utena herself. The same couldn't be said for the short blonde, though, who had spent the last few minutes studying Utena quietly. The pink-haired girl was starting to squirm when she finally spoke, her voice quiet but firm.

"Lancer. Who is your friend?"

Lancer blinked, red eyes cloudy for a moment as his mind shifted gears; he grinned toothily, patting Utena on the shoulder as he took another sip from the drink she'd brought him. "Her name's Utena. Archer found her the other night."

Rider lifted a brow, smirking. "I always did say you and Archer should adopt."

Lancer choked on his drink for a second time, gagging and coughing. "Dammit, Rider," he gasped.

"Hey, you two set yourselves up for it."

"Frightening woman," Lancer murmured, clearing his throat before he took another sip of his drink to try and soothe his now sore throat.

The blonde, though, was still focused on Utena. "What do you mean, Archer found her?"

The spearman shrugged. "Hey, you'll have to ask the bowman, not me. All he said was he found her unconscious and wounded in the woods."

Utena swore if those forest green eyes looked at her any more intently, they'd be peering into her soul. She knew she should have said something by now to introduce herself—hell, normally she'd have introduced herself long before this point—but her voice wasn't coming easily.

Lancer must have noticed, because he sighed. "Saber, stop staring at the kid like that. You're scaring her."

The blonde blinked and looked up at him, baffled. "Am I? I'm merely studying her. You have to admit, Lancer, finding her in the woods is a bit odd."

Another shrug was the blue-haired man's answer. "That was all Archer said."

"Um," Utena said, and almost immediately wondered if she'd made the right choice as Saber's sharp gaze focused on her again. "In his defense, I don't actually know how I wound up in the woods." Indeed, she only knew she'd even been found in the woods because of Archer's question. Her first memory of this new place had been waking up on the pair's couch.

Saber lifted a brow at this, but something in her forest green gaze seemed to shift as she turned the thought over in her mind; ever so subtly, tension seeped out of her body as she came to the mental conclusion that she wouldn't need to beat Archer senseless the next time he visited Shirou's house.

Utena, however, was completely unaware of this and continued to squirm slightly under the blonde's gaze.

"Saber, you're doing it again," Lancer muttered.

"Doing wha—oh." And just as suddenly, those forest green eyes became sheepish and soft, a faint embarrassed flush coloring her cheeks. "My apologies, I was lost in thought."

… _And now she's cute, _Utena thought, a little stunned by the instant transformation. _That isn't fair. That isn't fair at all_. She wondered if this was what the other girls at Ohtori had felt like, every time they had swooned and squealed over her.

"In any case." With a small smile, Saber offered her hand. "You've already heard my name, but let me introduce myself properly. My full name is Emiya Altria, but you may call me Saber."

Lancer leaned over, whispering softly into Utena's ear and making her jolt. "Yeah, see, only her boyfriend can call her Altria," he murmured, red eyes gleaming.

Saber's blush deepened, as she heard the words quite clearly; she simply huffed. "Honestly, Lancer," she said. "For the last time, Shirou and I aren't dating."

The spearman pulled back, grinning. "Hey, you and Rider tease me about the bowman all the time. I take my shots where I can get them. Makes us even."

Saber rolled her eyes, but the blush didn't fade.

Smiling, Utena took Saber's offered hand and squeezed. "Tenjou Utena. I'm a little new in the area."

Seeming pleased with how this had progressed, Saber nodded and released Utena's hand, stepping back. She glanced at Rider, an expectant look on her face.

Rider sighed, then held out her hand. "Officially, I'm Tohsaka Ouka," she said. "You can just call me Rider, though."

Cool, but polite. Utena took her hand, shook it, and briefly thought of Juri.

Rider, however, was focusing on Lancer again the moment her hand was free. "Does Rin know Archer found her?"

Lancer scowled. "How many times do you want to hear me say I don't know? It's not my business how he handles things."

"I'm just saying. You know how she gets if she feels he's hiding something from her."

"Why do you even—" Red eyes widened in understanding, before the blue-haired man nodded. "Right, I forgot the lass is due home today from that school of hers."

Rider couldn't resist the small smile even if she tried. "She is. It'll be nice to see her face to face again."

"I'm surprised you aren't home waiting for her." Lancer grinned. "Exchanging letters didn't quite do it for you, or is she a more romantic writer than I thought from what she sent the bowman?"

As the two dissolved into another round of light bickering, Utena glanced at Saber. "Do they do this often?" she asked.

Saber sighed. "Pretty much every time they meet. Believe me, you'll get used to it soon enough."

* * *

><p>The small, rickety table rattled as Raiga cheerfully dumped the full folder onto it.<p>

Archer slowly raised a brow. "You got all of this in just a few hours?" he asked.

Raiga simply grinned in response. Archer made it a point to never, ever question the man on how he managed to gather so much information so quickly or efficiently. He had the overwhelming sense that he was better off not knowing. Instead, he leaned back in his chair and waited.

He wasn't disappointed.

"Tenjou Utena, fourteen years old." Raiga didn't even need to open the folder, simply slid it across to Archer so he could flip it open and read for himself. "Her parents died in a hit and run incident when she was six. The driver was never arrested or charged."

Archer frowned, steel gray eyes dark. "Did she witness the incident?"

"Police reports don't say if she did or not either way." Raiga inhaled deeply from his pipe. "She was put into an orphanage not long after the funeral."

"She had no family?"

"Her maternal grandparents died before she was born, and her paternal grandfather was deemed unfit to look after her wellbeing." The old man sighed. "The system was considered a better alternative."

Archer said nothing, simply continued reading. Taking that as encouragement, Raiga continued.

"She was in the system until about four months ago. The last official public record I could find of her states she was enrolled into Ohtori Academy, and then she just…. vanishes."

Archer blinked, looking at him now. "Vanishes?"

Raiga nodded. "Vanishes. And believe me, I kept looking, but let me tell you; there's absolutely nothing on this Ohtori Academy, at least not on public record, that I could find. If the description matches the name you gave me, your girl has been missing for quite awhile."

A frown slowly turned down the dark-skinned man's lips as he kept reading Utena's application for the school. "It states here that Ohtori is a boarding school," he said. "And she was an orphan. Isn't it possible she just never went back?" She'd very clearly marked on the application that she intended to stay on campus in the dorms.

"Oh, I'd believe it in a heartbeat." Raiga inhaled deeply from his pipe and was silent for a moment, before speaking again. "But like I said, Ohtori Academy doesn't exist in any public record I've looked into. For all intents and purposes, Tenjou Utena packed a small suitcase of personal belongings and left the orphanage, and was never seen again. Any attempt to contact her simply never made it through."

"Well." Archer sighed. "For a school that doesn't seem to exist, this application looks official enough."

"Official enough to fool the orphanage, that's for sure. It came in the mail offering an athletic scholarship for the girl. She was close to aging out of the system, so it was a relief to them to have somewhere for her to go."

Archer said nothing for a long moment as he set aside Utena's application and continued to study the file, as if he believed that if he looked at the papers hard enough some information about Ohtori would materialize before his eyes. But nothing jumped out at him. Aside from the application letter Utena had been sent in the mail, there was nothing on the school. Not even a foot note.

_Looks like I'll have to ask her after all_, he mused, and resisted the urge to sigh. Honestly, he knew it might have been the dirty way to go about it, but he had been hoping to avoid having to directly ask the girl about the school. Utena's behavior clearly indicated some kind of past trauma that she associated with Ohtori, and the wound seemed to be still fresh. Archer was a lot of things, but confronting a child about a recent traumatic experience was something he'd never been able to do.

It seemed he still had enough of Emiya Shirou in him to not cross that line.

"And that's all you could find?" he asked, switching gears.

Raiga snorted. "All I could find, the boy says," he muttered, before nodding. "Yes. That's all that came up on your young girlfriend."

"… She's not my girlfriend, Raiga."

The old man grinned. "That's what you get for saying that's _all _I could find."

Archer sighed and rolled his eyes, making a mental note to never, ever become Raiga's enemy. While he had a vague idea of how the old man got so much information so quickly, he found it was one of those things he liked to pretend he didn't know.

Honestly, the thought that Taiga was related to someone like this scared him. Just a little bit.

* * *

><p>In the end, Lancer considered it a good day. The talk with Saber and Rider had briefly edged into some frightening territory for him when the topic of shopping for Utena came up—after all, if the girl intended to stay with him and Archer for awhile, she'd need more clothes than jeans and a sweater he'd gotten off of Taiga after one of their nightly escapades and had forgotten to return to her.<p>

Still, while he was open in many ways, the thought of shopping for a teenage girl daunted him. Utena, bless her soul, had saved him from having to consider it a possibility; she had spoken up and said she wasn't even sure how long she'd be staying, so for now shopping wasn't a major concern.

(Saber, bless her soul as well, had also offered to take her out and to bring Rider along when the time came, pointedly ignoring the way the taller former Servant had scowled at the thought.)

So now, instead of feeling wildly out of place as he watched Utena shop for things teenage girls liked to wear, they were both on their way home after his work shift had ended. All in all, he considered it a very good day. He'd gotten to work and see two of his friends, and Utena had gotten to go outside and relax a bit.

"So." He looked down at Utena, red eyes gleaming. "What did you think of them?"

"Saber and Rider?" Utena was quiet for a moment, thinking, before she spoke again. "They aren't the weirdest people I've ever met."

Lancer couldn't resist the laugh, smacking Utena lightly on the back; she still stumbled forward a few steps, clearly caught off guard, and winced as her hand came up to her stomach. Immediately, the man grimaced. "Ah, sorry. Forgot about that."

"It's okay. It only hurts a little bit." Honestly, it surprised Utena how little her wound had been bothering her while she'd been out. It certainly still stung and ached from time to time, enough to remind her it was still there, but she had been able to move around easily enough. It seemed Anthy had more skill with a sword than she'd ever let on.

The thought made Utena's head ache, so she quickly dismissed it.

"I had fun," she said, switching gears from that thought. "I liked being able to wander around and explore."

"Good, good." Lancer slid his hands into his pockets. "I admit, I worried about you being off on your own like that, but you managed well enough. Didn't have any trouble while I was working?"

Utena almost didn't mention it. It had been one freak encounter and she hadn't seen the man again, so overall she had dismissed it from her mind. But Lancer's question had brought the incident back to the front of her thoughts, and something about the young man's movements, the look in his eyes, stuck with her.

"Not trouble, but…" She trailed off for a moment, trying to think of how to describe it, before she continued on. "I ran into a guy while I was getting drinks."

Lancer grinned. "Attracting the lads already, eh?"

Utena blushed. "I-I'm not!" she yelped. "He just, he bumped into me after using the vending machine, and it was weird. He seemed really out of it. His hair was messy and he just… he had a weird look in his eyes."

Lancer had gone very quiet the more Utena talked; still moving, but his eyes seemed darker, sharper, as she described the man she'd run into that afternoon. "What did he look like?" he asked, and his voice was low and quiet.

She was a bit taken aback by his change in tone; she didn't think she'd ever heard him sound this serious and focused. "Um, blue hair and blue eyes. They were the same shade. Like I said, he seemed really listless. Almost confused. He snapped at me a bit before wandering off."

"Matou Shinji," Lancer murmured. "Damn, I didn't think that little boy was still alive."

Utena blinked. "… Who?"

Lancer sighed, now. "Someone from before your time. Rider said he'd vanished and not even Shirou could find him, so we thought he'd gone off somewhere to die. Surprised he's lasted this long on his own."

Utena now looked thoroughly confused at this point, even with the mention that this had all happened before she had appeared in the woods surrounding Fuyuki. Seeing the confusion in her eyes, Lancer chuckled and gently patted her back.

"Don't fret on it, lass. He's no one important. Just do yourself a favor and avoid him if you see him again. He's not in his right mind, and he has a history of being rough with women."

Sky blue eyes went dark. "Sounds like Saionji," she said, more to herself than to Lancer.

He heard her, of course. "Someone you knew from that Ohtori place?"

"Mmm." The headache was coming back now, throbbing faintly along her temples, the faded sensation of swords driving through her body. "He wasn't really nice to women, either. He was nasty to my best friend."

"Kicked his ass for that, I imagine."

The headache _burned _now, a pain of such blinding intensity that Utena was amazed she was still capable of appearing normal. But… she had, hadn't she? Because of the love letter that Wakaba had sent to him, had been pinned up for everyone to see. Yes, she'd gone to confront him on that, and of course there had always been the way he had treated Anthy—

_But what happened after that?_

_Do you know? Do you know?_

"I think I did," she said softly. "I… you know, it's strange, I don't really remember _what _I did."

His hand was on her back again, a steadying, firm presence. "Well, don't think on it too hard if you don't want to," he said lightly. "Don't want to hurt yourself."

"… Okay."

Her headache started to fade.

* * *

><p>A normal man would have, at this point in time knowing what he knew, gone to the police and handed Utena over to them. She wasn't his problem to deal with anymore, and she was clearly part of something much larger, and it would have been easier overall to give her up.<p>

A man who was not entirely normal but still smart enough to realize when he was possibly in over his head would have let Utena loose at this point. He would have left the choice of going to the officials to her, and she could decide whatever she wanted to do. It once more went back to her being part of a much larger problem.

Archer was by no means a normal man; he hadn't been one when he had lived as Emiya Shirou, and he wasn't about to start being one now. He was smart, but, well…

He was still Emiya Shirou to some extent.

Granted, none of this had anything to do with the fact that Archer was currently back in the woods surrounding Fuyuki. If anything, he pinned it on a feeling he'd had ever since leaving Raiga's, ever since learning there was definitely more to Ohtori than met the eye. If Utena had been cast out of the place—possibly because of her friend, as she'd hinted at last night—then there might be more to find where she'd fallen. It was just a feeling, but if there was one thing Archer had learned during his extended afterlife, it was that his feelings were usually justified. His track record wasn't spotty enough for him to start doubting those yet.

Returning to the spot had been easy enough, since he had come by it recently. Gently pushing aside the leaves and blinking at the sunlight, Archer peered down into the grass where he had found Utena.

And there it was.

To be honest, he hadn't been sure quite what he'd find; just that he'd thought he'd find _something_. He wasn't disappointed.

It had been a beautiful sword, once. Even just looking at it Archer could see it had been crafted with gentle care, perfectly suited for whoever used it. But its beauty was long gone now; the blade gleamed in the grass only a few inches from the broken hilt, as though some massive trauma had broken the sword clean in two.

The dark-skinned man knelt down, carefully picking up the hilt. Whoever had last handled the sword had done a thorough job of breaking it, but…

Well, he was Emiya Shirou. Emiya Shirou had always been good with swords, even broken ones.

* * *

><p>"Can I stay again tonight?"<p>

Utena had been quiet for most of the night since coming back home with Lancer; they'd already been around for awhile before Archer had gotten in with his find, but it had been easy enough to leave the broken sword in his study for preparing dinner. Utena hadn't spoken a word that whole time, and had in fact eaten mostly in silence until now.

Archer paused, his fork comically sticking out of his mouth as he took a moment to process what the young teenager had just said. Unable to resist, Lancer leaned across the table and lightly tugged the fork out of his mouth.

Utena, for her part, looked between the two nervously as an answer wasn't quick in coming. "It's just, um, you've both been really nice so far and I don't have anywhere else to go, so I thought…"

Lancer shrugged, setting the fork he'd stolen aside. "I don't have a problem with it. I liked having you around today."

Archer's mouth closed with a small click; it took his mind a few more seconds to catch up with the action. "Of course you can stay," he said after a moment. "You might need to spend another night sleeping in my shirt, though."

And that wasn't even getting into what she'd wear tomorrow. Archer firmly decided not to worry about it, and also decided that if shopping became an issue they'd need to address, that he'd send Lancer out with her to handle it.

It was worth it, anyway, just to see the relief in Utena's eyes and the way she relaxed back into her chair.

She didn't consider sleeping in Archer's old shirt a problem, anyway.

* * *

><p><em>She'd been here before.<em>

_That was Utena's first thought. The path she'd walked, that elevator ride that had never stopped being mildly freaky to her ever since she'd started using it, the way Anthy would change them both before the duel; it was all so familiar. Even the warmth of Anthy's hand in hers was familiar, even if it had been the one thing about this duel that had changed._

_But, well, that made sense. She'd been here before, after all._

_She recognized this. She recognized all of this. The darkness of the dueling arena, the presence of Dios. And at the top of the stairs…._

_Yes, Akio would be there. Like he had been last time._

_She wouldn't fail again._

"_Himemiya." Her voice was soft, but sure. "I need your help. I can't get the sword out on my own."_

_Next to her, Anthy blinked; the first bit of open surprise Utena could ever remember her showing. "Utena-sama?"_

"_Please. I can't explain it to you right now. I promise I will later. I need to have my sword."_

_Anthy didn't reply, and at first Utena thought her plea wasn't enough. Then she felt the soft hand settle on her chest, right over her heart._

"_As you wish, Utena-sama."_

_Utena paid no mind to the ritual as the sword was drawn, or the words that needed to be spoken for the summoning; by this point they were practically second nature. No, her eyes were always on those stairs, waiting, and only when her sword was firmly grasped in her hand did she have some measure of confidence._

_She heard footsteps, and narrowed her eyes._

_As the figure appeared before her, Utena felt ice form in her belly. She couldn't breathe. She opened her mouth, but no words came out._

_Akio was not the one at the top of those stairs._

_The garments were the same; those clothes of snow white that Utena had spent nearly all of her life chasing after since her parents died. The ideal of the prince, the one she had chased after for so long and so hard, was standing right before her._

_But the eyes that gazed coolly down into hers were the same sky blue as her own._

"… _You're me," Utena whispered, horrified. "How… why are you me?"_

_The other Utena—the prince, didn't reply. Her eyes didn't even flicker. She simply held up her hand, and in that hand was a sword. "I'm not you," she said softly, coldly._

_And then she was gone from the top of the stairs._

_It was so fast, so sudden that Utena almost didn't see it coming; the only thing that gave away the attack was the faint whistle of the wind as the prince moved, and even with that warning she wasn't fast enough. She was able to avoid the jab aimed at her rose, the blade buried into her flesh just inches from the flower._

_The pain was blinding. Utena staggered and gagged, gasping, as wave after wave of agony washed over her. The prince's eyes were still cold as she lifted her foot off the ground and drove it right into Utena's stomach in a vicious kick._

_Her back cracked painfully as it slammed against the floor of the arena; Utena's vision flashed red and she saw stars as her head ached. She shifted, tried to reach for her sword as she heard the footsteps approaching, but she was too slow. A foot settled firmly on her midsection, holding her in place._

_The prince stared down at her for a moment._

"_H-How…?" Utena didn't know how she could think through the pain, much less talk. "I… I wasn't good enough to become a prince…"_

_The prince smiled. She leaned down and gently, almost tenderly, touched Utena's face. The young girl felt a chill at how cold, how inhuman, that smile was. "Oh, little one," the prince crooned, I already said…"_

_Her foot shifted, settled over Utena's ribs._

"_I'm…"_

_And pressed down._

"… _Not…"_

_Down, down._

"… _You."_

_Down, until Utena heard a crack, heard something break._

_She sucked in a breath, but the scream didn't come. Still smiling, the prince stepped off of her. She felt cool, gloved hands brush against her fingers, gently closing them around the hilt of your sword._

"_Get up, little one," the prince murmured. "We're not done yet."_

_What force of will drove Utena back to her feet, she didn't know. How she could even still stand was a mystery. But she was standing, one hand clutching at her broken ribs, the other wielding her sword, pointed right at the prince._

_The prince was still smiling._

_She moved again, faster than Utena could even comprehend, and being in her wounded state didn't help. The prince was on her in an instant, driving her back, the flashing blade of her sword chipping at Utena's, breaking it away, until nothing remained._

"_I'm not you." Her voice was low, cold, a blade of ice driving right into Utena's heart. "I'm a prince. I'm a warrior. But you… you were __**never good enough **__to be me. Never a prince. You were always just…"_

_Flash._

_"… A little…"_

_Flash._

_"… Girl."_

_Utena's sword shattered, the hilt knocked out of her hand. She stumbled back, off balance—_

_And felt a sword drive right through her heart from behind._

"_And never good enough to save me," Anthy whispered into her ear._

_Utena saw black, and thought no more._

* * *

><p>Utena jolted awake, a hand already flying to her mouth to muffle the scream she felt rising in her throat. The scream never came, but the tears did; hot and painful as they poured out of her eyes, streaked down her cheeks, her sobs muffled by her hand as she felt the nausea and horror curling in her belly.<p>

One hand skimmed over her breast; no blood. The other pressed against her ribs and felt no pain, and she could breathe clearly and easily.

A dream. It had just been a dream, a nightmare. Those injuries hadn't actually been real, they had been part of the nightmare. Her death—

"_And never good enough to save me."_

Sniffling, Utena wiped at her eyes and stumbled to her feet, kicking the blanket aside clumsily. Water. She needed water. She just needed to cool down, and wash her face, and she'd be fine.

She pressed one hand against the hallway wall to keep her sense of direction as she made her way through the dark, too disoriented to bother with waiting for her eyes to adjust. Nudging the bathroom door open, she flipped the light on and ran the water as cold as she could manage, drinking from her cupped hands before splashing it on her face and neck.

As she dried her face, she heard the faint sound somewhere down the hall of Lancer snoring. The sound, a reminder that there was someone else in the apartment, was oddly soothing at the moment.

She sighed, brushing loose strands of wet hair out of her eyes, and flicked the bathroom light off, stepping back out into the hallway. The problem now was her mind was clear, the cold water a soothing sensation in her belly. Going back to sleep wouldn't be easy, especially with the images from her nightmare so fresh in her mind.

She was a little ways away from her room when she noticed a sliver of light peeking out from the closed door of Archer's room; was he still awake, this late at night? The thought gave her pause.

After a moment of hesitation, she approached the door and gently nudged it open.

* * *

><p>Archer's favorite time to work was easily during this period, those hours between late night and early morning. He was the only one still awake, and all was quiet; not completely quiet, of course, Lancer always snored, but a closed door muffled the sound easily enough. His room was a bit cramped, between the bed and the desk, but he'd never needed a lot of space to live in.<p>

The only real downside was his room didn't contain the tools and space he'd need to properly repair the sword he was studying. An annoyance, but Archer could handle it; he would simply take it into the shop tomorrow and work on it when he was between orders or when it was a slow day. For now he simply familiarized himself with the weapon, gently feeling the blade, the hilt, to try and understand what kind of person had created it.

And what had, ultimately, broken it.

His thoughts were interrupted, however, by the sound of the door opening. Startled, he turned around, pushing his glasses up into his hair.

Utena stood before him, her hand resting nervously on her arm. "Sorry," she said after a moment. "I had trouble sleeping and saw you were still up."

"Ah, Lancer's snoring." Archer slid his glasses off, setting them on the desk. "He could keep even a heavy sleeper up with the sound of it."

Utena hesitated a moment before nodding in agreement, giving Archer the strong suspicion that it hadn't been the other man's snoring that had woken her; he didn't push it, though. After a moment, he gestured to his bed.

"You can sit there if you like," he said. "It's a bit small, but it's soft enough."

Utena blinked, then nodded, heading over to the bed and settling on it, crossing her legs. The shirt she'd worn to bed—the same one she'd worn the night before, one of Archer's—looked especially large on her in the lamp light. After a moment, once he knew she was settled, Archer turned back to the sword and went to work.

"… Thank you," Utena said after a moment.

Archer didn't reply, but she seemed to get her answer anyway.

* * *

><p>Utena couldn't see quite what Archer was working on; the light from the lamp was still dim, and his back faced her in such a way from her angle that she couldn't see the desk. She knew all she'd have to do to see was shift, but she couldn't bring herself to.<p>

Archer had been right. His bed _was _soft, and the presence of him was soothing; the faded scent of motor oil and smoke clinging to the shirt she wore felt soothing. She couldn't quite put her finger on why she felt safe in his presence, not when he hadn't been as open to her as Lancer had been, and yet somehow she did. She wasn't even aware of when her eyes started drooping, when she shifted a bit and laid down, nuzzling into her pillow and watching him work with sleepy eyes.

She didn't even remember her eyes closing; the next thing she knew was her eyes were opening, blinking against the sunlight, and sometime before morning Archer had seen fit to pull back the covers and tuck her into bed.

* * *

><p>Long chapter was long. This clocked in at eighteen pages on Microsoft Word. Happy April Fool's!<p>

Read and review, please!

4/2/13: chapter edited for minor continuity error. Thanks to Muramasa for pointing it out!


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